What Is the Future of Cars and Petrol?

[meee]

hey.,.. I am just wondering wat the future is for cars and petrol?

are we gona have electric cars or waterfueled cars?

wats happening next?

how long til petrol runs out?

 

[russ_watters]

Electric, then hydrogen fuel cells. Gas won't "run out" for another century, but it'll keep getting more expensive until then.

 

[brewnog]

More Diesels, more biodiesel. When oil prices start to seriously rise, the American market will wake up to Diesel.

Then, homogeneous charge compression ignition, potentially using some kind of biofuel once they work out what the combustion system will be.

The internal combustion engine is here to stay for a lot longer than most people realize, chiefly because petrol and Diesel are so hard to beat in terms of energy density.


Oh, and water isn't a fuel.

 

[pallidin]

Why can't water be considered a fuel?
After all, gasoline and such petrols require external energy to release or utilize its chemical fuel potential. Can't the same be said for water?

 

[Dmitri]

Why can't water be considered a fuel?
After all, gasoline and such petrols require external energy to release or utilize its chemical fuel potential. Can't the same be said for water?

No, because water, unlike petrol, is not a source of energy. However It can be used to store energy by splitting it to hydrogen and oxygen.

 

[eveseh]

humm.dont know yet maybe we going to have electric,hha

 

[russ_watters]

Why can't water be considered a fuel?
After all, gasoline and such petrols require external energy to release or utilize its chemical fuel potential. Can't the same be said for water?

That statement is incorrect. Once the activation energy is overcome, burning a fuel is self-sustaining. Water is not a fuel, it is a combustion product. It is an ash. "Burning it" requires first a complete reversal of the combustion process that created it.

 

[end3r7]

Water could be used as in a source of Hydrogens though.
Burning hydrogen would be ideal, because all that would be produced is water vapor.

Has anybody seen "Who Killed the Electric Car" yet?

 

[pallidin]

Yes, I stand corrected. Water is not a fuel, but a fuel source.
That's what I meant, but I was still wrong in my original statements.

 

[brewnog]

Yes, I stand corrected. Water is not a fuel, but a fuel source.
That's what I meant, but I was still wrong in my original statements.

It's no more a source of fuel than a flat battery.

 

[DaveC426913]

It's no more a source of fuel than a flat battery.

or the ashes in a firepit.

As pointed out, water is the end-product of a reaction. You cannot simply start the process with a kick and let it run. (Thought exercise: what process is it that you would perform on water that would cause it to release more energy than you put into it?)

You have to - like a flat battery (or, at least in principle ashes from a fire) - actually put all the energy in.

 

[dimensionless]

I don't think anybody truly knows what the future will be. At the moment there seems to be a move towards hybrids, and in the future the hybrids could move off in some other direction. There are probably several possibilities. Hydrogen fuel cells is one. The only other thing that comes to mind are fly wheels. Special paint that made cars have zero wind resistance would be nice. So would super efficient braking return-energy.

 

[manbush]

There is a test trial in a texas farm community regarding using pig manuvere for fuel. Basically, they take a lot of pig poop and put it in high pressurized cylinders that generate fuel substance that can be used in vehicles.

 

[Stevedye56]

Getting back to the water cars. Correct me if I am wrong but isn't the energy reqired to separate the oxygen and the hydrogen a lot more than you get out of burning the hydrogen? Which makes them completely inefficient. Not that gasoline cars arent with their 30%-35% efficiency..pathetic all the good energy gone to heat...

 

[DaveC426913]

Getting back to the water cars. Correct me if I am wrong but isn't the energy reqired to separate the oxygen and the hydrogen a lot more than you get out of burning the hydrogen? Which makes them completely inefficient.

You're missing the point.

Q: How much energy does it take to charge a drycell battery?
A: Who cares? All I care about is how small it is and how much energy I can carry with me.

Likewise, damn the efficiency - you do all the charging outside the car and store the energy as compactly as possible inside the car.

 

[Stevedye56]

You're missing the point.

Q: How much energy does it take to charge a drycell battery?
A: Who cares? All I care about is how small it is and how much energy I can carry with me.

Likewise, damn the efficiency - you do all the charging outside the car and store the energy as compactly as possible inside the car.

By charging i assume you mean batteries, right?

 

[DaveC426913]

By charging i assume you mean batteries, right?

No. Hydrogen.

You take the water, and store energy in it by splitting it into H and O. You bring the H with you and, by combining it with O, you release that energy again.

The point is, it doesn't matter how much energy it takes to store it in the first place, since you do that at the pump/garage/whatever.

See, the equivalent ICE/gasoline question would be "isn't a huge amount of energy expended drilling for the gasoline? That's very inefficient."

 

[desA]

I would say that the focus will be to move away from fossil-fuels towards bio-fuels as the next major step. The engine conversions required are not onerous & can be implemented cost-effectively by vehicle manufacturers. Folks can also make a steady income stream from growing the crops used for the manufacture of these bio-fuels.

Fuel-cell & electric cars have problems when it comes to the support infrastructures needed to support these vehicles. The up-front costs are enormous.

Hybrid vehicles as in engine-generator coupled systems are a useful fuel-saving exercsie, but they dramatically raise the complexity of maintaining these vehicles & probably up-front costs.

With electrical vehicles, all that you are doing is transferring the pollution generation from the vehicle, back to the power station.

Generating the hydrogen requirements to supply a world of fuel-cell vehicles will be very problematic & expensive in the short term.

 

[Stevedye56]

No. Hydrogen.

You take the water, and store energy in it by splitting it into H and O. You bring the H with you and, by combining it with O, you release that energy again.

The point is, it doesn't matter how much energy it takes to store it in the first place, since you do that at the pump/garage/whatever.

See, the equivalent ICE/gasoline question would be "isn't a huge amount of energy expended drilling for the gasoline? That's very inefficient."

Sorry i got confused, my bad.

 

[Volumunox]

http://www.casavaria.com/sentido/science/tech/06-0927-relativity-engine.htm"

 

[computerpunk]

Some ideas that car companies are planning for the future...
the second picture is Nissan's Pivo and it rotates round so you don't have to.

 

[Azael]

aslong as they look as good as this one I am happy

http://www.teslamotors.com

 

[Volumunox]

no ones going to comment on my link of the New microwave engine that applies theory of relativity ? :D

i thought it was an interesting new idea, question is if it would work.

 

[russ_watters]

Sorry I missed it. It is, of course, a hoax.

We've discussed it in Skepticism and Debunking.

 

[wolram]

What is this? surly the only car that will be any better than today is one that takes less energy to manufacture, and i mean total energy usage from start to finish, even then running a car takes energy, no matter what energy one uses it needs energy to make, yes solar sells have to made.

 

[wolram]

Come think about it, if we would all accept a car that is only capable of speed limits, does not have a bazillion motors to adjust everything bar your jock strap, and sound systems that would equal those used in rock concerts,
and does not have lights equal to blackpool illumiations may be -------.

 

[brewnog]

Don't be silly wolram, if everyone thought like you then we'd all be driving sensible 60mpg cars perfectly capable of getting from A to B and back again whilst carrying everything you could possibly need for a fortnight away.